Having power issues with my first build

[siliconejacket]

Hello toms hardware community!

this is my first post on the forum so please address any mistakes i may have made.

I just built my very first home build computer and im having issues turning it on.
specs are:
a used (my old) emachines W3503 shell which has a 480W Antec Neo480 power supply
a new Biostar N68S3+ (which i got in a bundle with my CPU)
a new AMD Athlon II x3 triple core processor 3.3 GHz
a new Zotac Geforce GT 440
and a 250GB sata HDD

now this being my first build i do not know what the issue is
after everything has been connected and double checked i plugged in my power supply and tried to turn it on but no response.
i will state that before i switched out everything within the emachine it would do this periodically.
sometimes it would come on but no display, so i thought it was an issue with the old on-board video card but seeing as this is still an issue i would assume it is something else.

now ive had different responses from friends some say power supply issue, some say physical connections or the on/off button connection, others have told me that its more than likely my motherboard saying that it is "hit and miss" when you buy them. or that its an issue with the amount of ram to OS i have on there. (which i plan to change the OS to XP-64bit)


any information or direction i could i try will be greatly appreciated as i do not want to start sending stuff back if i have the means to correct the issue.

thank you very much any responses!

 

[eggbrook]

You probably wired the motherboard wrong for the power switch. Its a very common mistake early on.

Edit I missed the line "i will state that before i switched out everything within the emachine it would do this periodically."

This sounds like a powersupply issue alright. That or the case itself has a wiring issue of some kind. I would personally said if the PSU is from an older PC you should replace it. People always try and cheap out on PSUs when they have to be one of the most important pieces of hardware in the machine.

 

[Dogsnake]

Since you had intermittent similar issues before the re-build, I am thinking you have either mis-wired or you have a bad connector. Try wiggling each connecter where it attaches to the MB or device. Be sure to check for correct wiring too.

 

[siliconejacket]

thank you so much eggbrook for the response.

i was thinking the same thing when i was getting everything for the computer but i had a friend that is going to school to be a technician that helped me slap everything together. and they were saying "antec is a great PSU company" and the fact that it was 480W reassured them that it would work and that it was a great power supply being that their comp had a 350W PSU and their rig being vastly better than mine in almost every direction. i thought it to be true.

is there any way to test a power supply?
and if it is in fact the PSU is there any that you prefer?

 

[siliconejacket]

thank you dogsnake for the response.

as eggbrook said it could be that as well for the on/off switch which i had a buddy take a look at it as well.
he didnt know for a fact cause its a MICRO-ATX MOBO though.

i have a slot for a On/off and a slot for reset
we switched it to the reset to try and troubleshoot but still a no go

 

[eggbrook]

For the type of issue you are describing I have no way of testing the power supply. As for brands I would say stick with Antec, Corsair, Seasonic. Those are the brands I have never had trouble with.

 

[siliconejacket]

well i tried out another power supply connected the same way as before and it is still not working.
either the power supply i switched it out for as well is bad
or my wiring/connections are bad like you said egg about the power switch im not quite sure ive switched it around on the motherboard from rst to on/off still troubleshooting.
also each of my power supplys have a blue and black cable that has not been connected on either of them. its got 3 holes for pins any idea what that blue&black cable is for?

 

[siliconejacket]

Ive got it on! deffinitly power supply issue i almost cried when i heard the fans turn on.
i think it was a combination between the connector for the power switch and the PSU thank you guys for all the help

 

[siliconejacket]

Best answer selected by siliconejacket.